The Linguistic Cycle

Language Change and the Language Faculty

Elly van Gelderen

shows that Economy Principles can account for parts of linguistic cycles

argues that some cycles are relevant in the typological classification of languages, while others are not

shows that research into language change can provide insight into the shape of the earliest human language and how it evolved

The Linguistic Cycle

Language Change and the Language Faculty

Elly van Gelderen

Description

Elly van Gelderen provides examples of linguistic cycles from a number of languages and language families, along with an account of the linguistic cycle in terms of minimalist economy principles. A cycle involves grammaticalization from lexical to functional category followed by renewal. Some well-known cycles involve negatives, where full negative phrases are reanalyzed as words and affixes and are then renewed by full phrases again. Verbal agreement is another example: full pronouns are reanalyzed as agreement markers and are renewed again. Each chapter provides data on a separate cycle from a myriad of languages. Van Gelderen argues that the cross-linguistic similarities can be seen as Economy Principles present in the initial cognitive system or Universal Grammar. She further claims that some of the cycles can be used to classify a language as analytic or synthetic, and she provides insight into the shape of the earliest human language and how it evolved.